Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am sharing time with Deputy Connolly.

First, I acknowledge the time of year, Christmas time, which for many is a happy and joyful time of year, but for some women experiencing domestic violence and their children, can be the most violent time.

Alarmingly, the Stop Domestic Violence In Ireland organisation has stated it is already on course to record its busiest ever December after it was inundated with calls over the past few weeks. Services helping victims of domestic violence were unable to meet more than 3,000 requests for safe accommodation last year and this is a story repeating itself year after year due to the fact that the Government continues to starve funding to support services across the country.

I will speak of the situation facing domestic violence services in my constituency of Donegal. Currently, the Tusla domestic, sexual and gender-based violence services programme provides funding to three services in County Donegal. However, it provides only a marginal amount of funding to the vitally important domestic violence service in Inishowen, known as Lifeline.

Lifeline Inishowen domestic violence service provides a community response offering a first step to support women and children in Inishowen who are experiencing domestic violence. This is because Tusla believes that funding additional domestic violence services in Donegal, such as to Lifeline, would lead to a so-called "duplication of service provision in the Inishowen area and a risk of fragmentation of services if several organisations were to provide similar services within the same geographical area."

Without adequate funding for Lifeline services, the nearest refuge or support centre is in Letterkenny which could mean a two-hour drive for women coming down from Inishowen. So that the House knows, Inishowen is the size of Longford. One is talking about a small part of Donegal the size of a county in another part of Ireland. That is not practical for women experiencing domestic violence or abuse and yet Tusla and the Department of Children and Youth Affairs insist that providing funding to Lifeline in Inishowen would be a duplication.

The Government is putting women and children's lives at risk by not adequately funding the support services. For example, no funding was provided for the domestic violence sector in budget 2020. Fine Gael and the Government is continuing to starve the professional support services of the funding and resources these organisations need to deal with the increased numbers coming forward experiencing domestic violence. Furthermore, many professionals within the services are also struggling to maintain and recruit staff because of the low pay parity in the sector.

I will conclude by referring to the Istanbul Convention, which was put forward by the Council of Europe and which Ireland ratified on 8 March this year. The Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence provides actions obliging State to do all that is in its power to combat domestic violence. Interestingly in the case of Lifeline, the convention states: "Parties shall recognise, encourage and support, at all levels, the work of relevant non-governmental organisations and of civil society active in combating violence against women and establish effective co-operation with these organisations." I hope the Minister will reflect on this aspect of the convention and compare it to the current view as stated by Tusla with regard to Lifeline Inishowen as well as other domestic violence services.

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